The HIV vaccine field has a large and diverse pipeline of candidates advancing to the various stages of clinical testing. Sponsors of clinical trials constantly monitor the appearance of new tools and technologies that could reduce costs or timelines, facilitate recruitment and/or retention of volunteers, and improve data collection and analysis. However, deployment of such tools is not always straightforward and may have implications for regulatory approval, ethics reviews, statistical analysis, study design, and other aspects of clinical trial conduct. This meeting convened clinical trialists and other stakeholders to share past experiences and to discuss potential innovative uses of tools and technologies that could be adopted in future HIV vaccine clinical trials.

Most of the tools and technologies that were reviewed during the meeting have cross-cutting value for all HIV vaccine prevention fields and may even extend to other diseases.

Objectives:Review and discuss several tools or technologies that have the potential to facilitate or improve clinical trials of HIV vaccine candidates. The meeting focuses in depth on 3 selected technologies that are currently being deployed or considered (SMS messaging, paperless workflow, biometric devices) and briefly reviews the “next generation” of potentially promising technologies.

Deliverables: A summary of the discussion will be presented via a webinar and captured in a whitepaper report.